Tech Geek

I'm sure this has happened to many of us before. We have something printed out on a sheet of paper that we want to get on the computer so we can edit it or use it in a presentation. We poke around trying to find the original file, but it's gone, or you never had it in the first place. You've got two options, either you can start typing, or, if you have a scanner, you can dabble in OCR, Optical Character Recognition.

If you have a scanner or an all-in-one printer in your home or office, it may have came with some OCR software bundled with the machine. If it did, and that works for you, great. Go ahead and use it! If it didn't come with any software, or if you find that software less than ideal, read on for some other options.

Microsoft Office comes with a tool, found in the Microsoft Office Tools folder, called Microsoft Office Document Imaging. It was introduced in Office XP, so if you're still using Office 97, you're probably out of luck on this front! This program, along with a variety of other features, allows you to created editable text from a scanned image. Since it is a Microsoft Office tool, it will also send the text straight into a Microsoft Word document, if that's what you'd like to have happen.

You can either scan the document as a TIF(F) file and then use the File-->Open command to open it, or you can run the program and use the File-->Scan New Document command and the program will scan your document and perform OCR on it. If you opened a file, you need to also use the Tools-->Recognize Text Using OCR command. Once you've done that, you can copy and paste the text from that program into any other program. You can also copy images by selecting the image and selecting Edit-->Copy Image.

If you don't have Microsoft Office or your installation doesn't have that tool, you can try a new Google Docs example application that performs OCR on files that you upload. Visit the applicationwebpage at http://googlecodesamples.com/docs/php/ocr.php and click the sign in box. It will then ask if you want to grant access using your Google account.

On the next page, pick a JPG, GIF, or PNG file  and click the Start OCR Import button to perform OCR on. When it finished, it will display the result of your scan in a new Google Docs file. Here are the results of scanning this document, which many of us may have seen already, into each program.

Microsoft's program came up with:
Oii e rn 011th left
Take the 2009 health assessment by Sept. 30
FACT: You hove $1 00 to put toward health care biWs. The money’s waiting for you. lt% yours.
SO: Claim it by Sept. 30. Register at vvww.elcoforwe/Iness.org with your Blue Cross and BFue Shield ID number and take the health assessment.
FACT: Another $300 is waiting for you if you spend
more time at www.e/coforwel/ness.org.
SO: Log in daily, learn something, grow your health.
First you’ve heard of all this? Visit wwwelcobop.org/assessment.
Got web jitters? Contact a health care ddvacate for help at (8001 352-2876.
Already taken the health assessment? Pass this postcard to another ELCA-primory plan
member and ask, “Hove you token it?”

And Google's application came up with:

Cne month left
Toke the 2009 health assessment by Sept. 30

... you've heard of all this? ... www. e/cabop.org/ assessment.
Got web jiifers? Contact cz health core Cdvocoîe for help at (800) 352-2876.
Already taken the healih assessment? Pass this posïcard to another ELCA-primary plan
member and ask, "Have you raken H?"

Conclusion:
Maybe this wasn't the easiest document for either of the programs to recognize, since it had a variety of sans serif fonts. There is also a test document on the Google Application page and it did a better job recognizing that document, although it still wasn't perfect. As with all Google applications, this is a work in progress and will likely get better over time. And there's always the pledge: Satisfaction guaranteed or your money back. Given the price, we can't quibble too much! :)